SF, 2 others finalists to host Super Bowl

SUPER BOWL

Updated 11:24 pm, Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Crows perch on a steel structure that will hold seats at the 49ers' Santa Clara stadium, to open in 2014.

Crows perch on a steel structure that will hold seats at the 49ers' Santa Clara stadium, to open in 2014.

Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez - San Fran, The Chronicle

SF, 2 others finalists to host Super Bowl

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San Francisco is a finalist to host the Super Bowl in either 2016 or 2017, even though the game would be played in the new 49ers stadium in Santa Clara.

National Football League owners at their annual fall meeting in Chicago announced Tuesday that San Francisco was among two metropolitan areas that could submit bids to host the game in February 2016, the landmark 50th anniversary game of the annual NFL championship match.

San Francisco will be competing against South Florida for the right to host Super Bowl L. Whichever area isn't picked will compete with Houston to host Super Bowl LI in 2017.

"San Francisco has proven time and again that we know how to host the world for major events and shine on the international stage," Mayor Ed Lee said in a statement after the announcement. "A Super Bowl in the Bay Area will bring an enormous economic boost to our entire region and leave a lasting legacy for Bay Area youth."

If San Francisco proves successful in securing either Super Bowl, it will mark only the second time the Bay Area has hosted the NFL's premier event. The first time, in 1985, Super Bowl XIX was played in Stanford Stadium.

League spokesman Brian McCarthy said that "the quality of a stadium is a factor that owners take into consideration" and that competition among host cities is fierce.

As in 1985, the 2016 or 2017 game would not be played in San Francisco, but city officials plan to host events and parties in the lead-up to a sporting contest that a 2010 joint Beacon Economics and Bay Area Council Economic Institute report said generates an estimated $300 million to $500 million in overall economic activity for the host.

Despite the Niners planning to leave the city and be in the team's new $1.2 billion Silicon Valley stadium for the start of the 2014 season, 49ers CEO Jed York earlier told The Chronicle that "San Francisco is our home."

"If and when we win a Super Bowl, the parade will be on Market Street," York said.

Regional effort

Lee and other civic leaders are talking up collaboration and regional benefits.

"If our 49ers win the Super Bowl, I think there will be a parade in lots of cities, not the least of which will be San Francisco and Santa Clara," Santa Clara Mayor Jamie Matthews said. "You can never have too many parades."

Matthews said he was "very excited" about the opportunities for "all the cities up and down the Peninsula."

"It's silly to think of one city containing the Super Bowl," Matthews said. "This is really a regional effort. This is bringing the Super Bowl to the bay."

Plans due by May

San Francisco, Miami and Houston will have until May to put their best proposals forward. Then the league's 32 team owners will decide the 2016 and 2017 Super Bowl hosts at their annual spring meeting.

A league policy requires that NFL stadiums be in use for two seasons before they may host a Super Bowl. Santa Clara's 68,500-seat stadium, where seating can be expanded to accommodate 75,000, will just satisfy that requirement for the 2016 Super Bowl if it opens as scheduled for the 2014 season.

Points in favor

The Bay Area's bid is expected to showcase the area's natural beauty, iconic images like the Golden Gate Bridge, proximity to destinations like Wine Country, the wealth of dining and hotel options, and a track record of hosting major events simultaneously, like earlier this month when a Giants baseball playoff game, America's Cup World Series regatta, Fleet Week and the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass music festival coincided with other happenings.

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